—from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib; yet that is far-fetched. More likely the narrator was Saʿīd al-Maqburī, and, in fact, the report appears in Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī.
Among those who transmitted from him were: his son, Muḥammad ibn Abī Maʿshar—with his work al-Maghāzī—who was the last to narrate from him; al-Layth ibn Saʿd; Hushaym; Sufyān al-Thawrī (though older than he); Wakīʿ; Yazīd; Muḥammad ibn Sawāʾ; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī; Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Laythī; Abū al-Naḍr; Hawdhah; ʿAbd al-Razzaq; Muḥammad ibn Bakkār ibn al-Rayyān; ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī; Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr; Abū Nuʿaym; Abū al-Walīd; Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī; Isḥāq ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Warkanī; Jubārah ibn al-Mughallis; Manṣūr ibn Abī Muzāḥim; and many others besides.
Hushaym said, “I have never seen a Medinan more astute than Abū Maʿshar.”(1)
Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī related from Abū Nuʿaym that he said, “Abū Maʿshar was intelligent, a ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer of hadith).”
Yazīd ibn Hārūn remarked, “The hadith of Abū Maʿshar has remained sound, while the hadith of Abū Jazʾ Naṣr has vanished.”
He (Yazīd) also said, “I heard Abū Jazʾ ibn Ṭarīf say, ‘Abū Maʿshar is the greatest liar in heaven and on earth.’”
I said to myself, “That is your knowledge of the earth—what, then, of your knowledge of heaven?” So Allah lowered Abū Jazʾ and elevated Abū Maʿshar.
ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī stated, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd would not narrate from Abū Maʿshar; he declared him weak and would laugh whenever his name was mentioned. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, however, did transmit from him.”
ʿUbayd Allah ibn Faḍālah said, “I heard Ibn Mahdī say, ‘As for Abū Maʿshar, you know—’”